Saturday, July 31, 2010

Soft Drink War

I love soft drinks.

I bought this from a Turkish grocery store in Paris on my last trip. It's tasty and refreshing, very much like the American orange "Crush" (made by the Dr.Pepper Snapple group), or orange "Fanta" (made by the Coca-Cola company).

Truth be told, I bought it because I loved the "Drink with Commitment!"/"Buvez engagé!"slogan on the bottle that I thought was original.

I did a little googling about the Mecca Cola Company and found out that it's mission isn't just to sell a product, but there was a political message behind it.

The Mecca Cola Company was started in 2002 by French entrepreneur Tawfik Mathlouthi to offer an anti-American option in the soft drink world. At the time (still today), there were a growing number of people worldwide that were boycotting American products as a form of protest against imperialist America. The original slogan was "No More Drinking Stupid, Drink with Commitment" (we can all guess who 'stupid' is). It was originally launched in France, but the company has since sold to the UK, Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

You can read more about it in this BBC article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2640259.stm

The company donates 10% of it's profits to Palestinian aid, and another 10% goes to various European NGOs - which is enough reason for me to buy it.

In the article, Mathlouthi denies any religious, political, or racial ties, but nonetheless I think anyone choosing to buy Mecca Cola over an American brand is definitely making a statement. Or, maybe they just think the slogan is clever...